My love for writing started at an early age, and there were countless books that I enjoyed. Fantasy writing was something that didn’t happen until after 7th grade. I told this story before in Writing Journey Part 1. I was never interested in fantasy books unless they had animal characters. Then a teacher showed a few minutes of “The Fellowship of the Ring.” I was spellbound. I devoured The Lord of the Rings books and couldn’t get enough of that world. I couldn’t believe that I had never been interested in fantasy before.
The Lord of the Rings and some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s other writings gave me the inspiration to write fantasy stories. I loved the simplicity of a medieval setting and battles of good versus evil. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis brought in the idea of having talking animals in a story. Marrying the two ideas of animal characters and fantasy in my own stories was the greatest idea in the world to me.
The next influence was Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan. I was looking for books about The Lord of the Rings and came across “The Sorcerer of the North.” The cover looked interesting, and I saw an image that had a horse and a border collie on it. Fantasy, animal characters, and an interesting summary pulled me in. I read the first book in the series in less than twenty-four hours. That series taught me to research ancient and medieval history when necessary to make my stories more accurate.
Leven Thumps by Obert Skye inspired me to make my stories as unique as possible. Warriors by Erin Hunter made me think hard about how animal characters would see the world and humans. Books with magic influenced how I shaped the magic system in my world, which is something that will be discussed later.
The Sparks Shall Rise series did not come about on its own. Other writings helped to influence and shape it. I’m sure many more will leave their marks on my books.